So you may remember the first City at Night on here. I liked that one, but I haz skillz now so I thought I would like to come back to the concept. For reference, here is the first one, done in March of this year;

Artist Corinne Viner copyright 2017

And here is the one I just did, in oils this time.

Artist Corinne Viner copyright 2017

The second one is called Stars on Earth. I still like the first, but I’m pleased to be progressing.

Yesterday while I was out walking, I saw this hawk circling. It was beautiful to watch, though the rabbits probably didnt think so. At one point this little bird starts harrassing the hawk by swooping and touching wings before veering away to do it again. The small bird drove the bird of prey away by pestering it. Perhaps that bird had babies it was protecting, or perhaps it was bored. Looking back on it, it seems to be an omen. The hawks will leave if we bother them enough. Just, stay out of reach of those talons.

Here are some pictures of the landscape. No hawk pictures unfortunately! They move so fast.

I’ve been working my way through John Muir Laws’ The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, and it is an excellent book. He puts a strong emphasis on learning how to observe while teaching the underlying ideas of how to put a nature journal together. I loved so many of his ideas. The downside? benefit? of this book is that it is too large to take to the field. On one hand, that’s very good because it forces me to focus on what is actually there. On the other? Sometimes I’d like to just take the book with me and doodle on site from the book. It particularly touches my heart because he has written extensively about the Sierra Nevada wilderness, which is where I’m from. It makes me just a touch homesick. You can find his blog here. I would definitely recommend you’d buy this book in physical form. A tablet or kindle would have difficulty with the layout, and you’d lose the full effect.